Judge Skeptical of Joe Francis’s Explanation

July 30, 2014

My guess would be that the headline above would apply to pretty much any explanation Joe Francis has ever given a judge, and probably to any explanation he's ever given, period. In this case it applies to the explanation he gave Judge Sandra Klein last week, according to the Wall Street Journal, as to why he was "powerless" to return two luxury cars that belong to Girls Gone Wild, the business he formerly owned.

"An angry Mexican strip-club owner took them" was the explanation that failed to persuade this time.

Francis, who has been mentioned here before in consistently unflattering terms, was apparently booted from the company he founded after it filed for bankruptcy last year. Creditors have alleged that to be a sham, but the Chapter 11 trustee did ask for a restraining order to keep Francis away from the company's office and its employees. The trustee accused him of showing up uninvited and making violent threats, which doesn't sound like the reasonable, cool-headed Joe Francis we've come to know but he's been under a lot of stress. The company and its brands were sold in April, so that would seem to leave Joe out in the cold.

He's probably not living in one of those cars, unfortunately, but he does still have them. Or at least that's what the judge believes, based on her rejection of the angry-Mexican-strip-club-owner story. She said Francis would be fined $5,000 per day until he returns the cars. A hearing is set for tomorrow on that issue, according to the WSJ. If the cars aren't back, the judge said, she will consider additional sanctions including jail time.

Francis has previously claimed under oath not to know what the word "jail" means, so maybe it's time for a reminder.